Oh Deer! Two More Fishing Oddities — 10 Nov. 2010 — 60 Fish – Stillhouse Hollow






Mrs. Rebecca and I decided we take a “stay-cation” — you know, a vacation where you just stay home and work as hard at the house as you otherwise would when your not there.

Well, we sharply disagreed about what wakeup time should be on a staycation, so I, the early riser, went fishing, while she, the sleep ’til nooner, did not.

I took a quick trip by myself to Stillhouse before we met back up to repaint our front door.

While on the water today, I had two out-of-the-ordinary events happen. First, a nice buck decided he needed to pay we anglers a visit:



I found white bass in a fairly active mood this morning (with a surface temp. of 66.9F) from about 30 minutes after sunrise and until 10:30 am. I caught fish on top at between Areas 110 and 550, primarily sight casting a Cicada, departing this area with 15 whites landed, of which 13 were short. Then, I checked out some deep water haunts as the sun got brighter, and found a bunch of larger white bass at Area 121. I boated exactly 45 fish here including 1 largemouth, 1 drum, 1 short white bass, 41 legal white bass, and this, the second oddity of the day:

A flathead (yellow) catfish, hanging out with a school of white bass in 34 feet of slack water … not a common occurrence.

TALLY = 60 FISH, all caught and released








SKIFF Trip # 15 for the 2010 Season – 08 Nov. 2010 – 15 Fish






S.K.I.F.F. (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) exists to take the children of deployed and deceased soldiers on professionally guided fishing trips at no charge to the family. These trips are provided through my guide service, Holding the Line Guide Service, with funds generated by the Austin Fly Fishers, and with the support of businesses and individuals from all over the U.S.

Here is my report for today’s trip…

Jaylen G. with a hybrid striped bass taken on a TNT 180 slab.

Kelsey C. with the 2nd fish she’d ever caught!

Sarah C. with a hybrid that looks almost as big as she is.


Dear Friends of S.K.I.F.F.,


I had a wonderful after-school trip today with three kids from the Killeen/Fort Hood area. The oldest was 6th Grader Jaylen Guilloux, son of Sergeant First Class Fritzgerald Verella, an Army aviator stationed in Afghanistan with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. Next was 4th Grader Kelsey Cates and 2nd Grader Sarah Cates, both daughters of Staff Sergeant Ken Cates currently stationed in Iraq serving with the 1st Cavalry Division.


Things were just a little “different” today. This is the first post-Daylight Saving Time trip I’ve run, so, sunset was around 5:45pm. Jaylen’s mom, Liz, kindly provided taxi service for all 3 kids since she knows Kelsey and Sarah’s mom, Melissa. As we got launched, put lifejackets on, went through the safety rules, etc. and got ready to shove away from the courtesy dock, I saw the girls both looked almost to the point of tears. I calmly asked them what was wrong and big sister Kelsey spoke up first and said, “I’ve never been on a boat before and I’m scared.” Sarah added a “Me, too.” to that. That really took me by surprise, so, I cut the engine and let us drift on the wind a bit and explained in detail how things worked on the boat, how it was made to keep us safe, and that once we got to where the fish were and started to catch them, their worries would go away. I promised that I’d go slow and that the girls could give me a thumbs-down sign if I needed to go even slower. Well, that seemed to alleviate their fears and we were off.

As we headed to the first area I wanted to try, God smiled on us. I just grinned from ear to ear … as we eased into Area 687 I could see on the fair chop created by a 13+ mph S. wind, spray being thrown in the air by hybrid stripers and white bass aggressively pursuing shad that were just shy of 4 inches long. I had seen large bait like this over the weekend and had a matching slab already tied on to each child’s rod. We got into a “hover” over a school of fish holding down at ~30 feet. I then provided instruction on how to work the slabs so as to imitate a shad and fool the fish into biting. I have 3 pededstal seats mounted abreast on the front deck of my boat and had Jaylen leaning on the seat to my left, Kelsey leaning on the seat to my right, and Sarah sitting Indian-style on the deck in front of me (did you know it’s not called “Indian-style” anymore — it’s “criss-cross applesauce”?!). Finally, everybody got the hang of things and we worked our slabs through these fish that were kind enough allow us to get our act together and then continue biting. The kids followed instructions to a “T” and we had 2 fish boated per child in about 40 minutes time, including Kelsey’s first fish ever (a 14.75 inch largemouth bass), a keeper hybrid, and several white bass and short hybrid. This action was strong, but also short-lived, and after boating our seventh fish, these fish were done with the aggressive feeding. We continued to work the area with downriggers to try to strain out a few still-active fish and, rigged with out-sized 5 inch baits, managed 3 more hybrid stripers, 2 of which were legal, and 2 more white bass before this shoal of fish shut down. (BA: 15 HG)

We headed to Area 214 and found very reluctant fish in 35+ feet on bottom. These fish, too, were very reluctant, and probably had just finished a feed as well. I knew it’d be tough for the kids to catch these, so we moved on.

We gave one other area, Area 084, a try right before, during and following sunset. I spotted fish with sonar on a 25 to 30 foot breakline, and, working this over with the downriggers on several passes, we hooked and landed 1 short hybrid and 2 more solid white bass. The kids enjoyed this kind of fishing because “Mr. Bob” did all the work while they dined on Lunchables and carrot sticks dipped in Ranch dressing only to be occasionally distracted by a rod flailing wildly in its holder indicating yet another fish had been fooled by a well-presented Pet Spoon.

As darkness moved in, we moved on back to the boat ramp and tried easing the throttle up to full tilt as the girls gave the thumbs-up sign that their trepidation about the whole boating experience had fallen by the wayside.

When all was said and done, each of the kids landed 5 fish tonight, including a fish over 2 pounds for each child. What we missed out on in quantity, we made up for in quality.

Each child went home with an Austin Fly Fisher tacklebox with a handful of crappie jigs inside. Jaylen got the very last SKIFF t-shirt I had on hand.

Kelsey earned a Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. “First Fish Award” certificate on this trip and is expecting its arrival by mail from Joedy Gray (TPWD Angler Recognition Program Leader) late this week or early next.

Thanks to each of you for all you’ve done, seen and unseen, to make days on the water like this one possible for military kids like these.


Sincerely,

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

Note:

Water surface temp. = 67.8 F

Winds: S13








Belton Lake Fishing Guide Report – 06 Nov. 2010 – 88 Fish






This morning I welcomed aboard 4 1/2 year old Tres T., and his dad and grand-dad, J.J. and Dennis. Grandma Vikki set this trip up over a month ago and I was hoping against hope that we’d still have some sunfish up shallow, but this week’s hard cold front put the final nail in that coffin. However, that same cold front brought falling water temperatures which always creates a spike in fish activity this time of year and today we saw the first bit of that action. This was Tres’ trip and J.J. and Dennis were there to make that young man successful, not to catch fish themselves, which is really the best frame of mind to approach a trip with a boy so young.

Tres (with help from daddy J.J.) and his biggest fish of the trip — a trip which included catching the first fish of his life!

And, of course, we need to include grand-dad Dennis in a photo, too!

We got on the water just at sunrise, a few minutes before 8:00am. There aren’t a whole lot of options open for a 4 year old this time of year that are engaging enough to keep a youngster’s attention and which they can do well enough to be successful. We went with a downrigging approach and tried to keep Tres involved in every aspect of the technique, including stripping out the right amount of line, having him keep his hands on the downrigger crank as we dropped the ball, retrieving the ball, and, of course, reeling in the fish.

We hit the frontal cycle just right today as it was the first day of S. wind following several days of N. winds. The fish fed hard from sunrise until around 10am, then again from 11:30 to around 2:00p. We kept Tres very busy during the first of these two bites, often with both downrigger rods catching at the same time.

We fished two area over the 2 1/2 hours that Tres stayed engaged. The first area (BA: 8HG) was bounded by Areas 676, 677, and 473. At this location we found ample numbers of keeper whites tight to the bottom in 23-26 feet and took at least one fish on most every pass we made. We also picked up 1 short and 1 keeper hybrid here. All of these fish came on Pet Spoons.

The second area of success was in the vicinity of Area 080 (BA:15 HG). We arrived in this area around 9:30a as the bite was tailing out at our previous location. Here, in 35-37 feet of water over a fairly flat bottom, we found white bass schooled on the bottom with wolfpacks of 3-6 hybrid patrolling the middle of the water column at 12-29 feet. We put on one large Pet up high and one small Pet down low and combed out 2 more nice hybrid and 2 more white bass before Tres announced to all that he had enjoyed enough fishing for one day.

We headed over to the waterfall for some photos and some exploring, then did a bit of boat driving instruction just to try to round out little Tres’ outdoor experience this morning. He and his fishing buddies were headed back to Austin by around 10:30 with exactly 24 fish boated for their efforts today.

I then laid over and continued fishing and patrolling the lake for signs of fish activity, namely looking for any birds pointing the way to fish.

In about 4 hours’ time, I found fish in 3 separate locations. All of these fish responded well to a smoking retrieve as I used both a 3/8 and 3/4 oz. TNT 180 slab. I found these fish between Area 214 and 477 (BA: 9 HG), and at Area 686 (BA: 20 HG) and Area 687 (BA:4 HG). Over this 4 hour time I boated an additional 64 fish consisting only of white bass and hybrid striper. I caught a mix of legal and short fish of both varieties, including 3 more legal hybrid. At times, fish holding up high in the water column (7-12 feet down) would push shad to the surface and then pursue them on the surface. There was rarely more than 1-2 fish visually appearing on the surface at a given time.

TALLY = 88 FISH, all caught and released


TODAY’S CONDITIONS

Start Time: 8:00a

End Time: 2:30p

Air Temp: 38F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~68.8F

Wind: Winds were light at S2-3 at sunrise, increasing to S7-8 by midday.

Skies: Skies were bright and clear the entire trip under high pressure.








SKIFF Trip # 14 for the 2010 Season – 01 Nov. 2010 – 34 Fish






S.K.I.F.F. (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) exists to take the children of deployed and deceased soldiers on professionally guided fishing trips at no charge to the family. These trips are provided through my guide service, Holding the Line Guide Service, with funds generated by the Austin Fly Fishers, and with the support of businesses and individuals from all over the U.S.

Here is my report for today’s trip…

Looking out for little brother…

D-E-T-E-R-M-I-N-A-T-I-O-N !! No man has ever put more effort into landing an 8 oz. white bass than this little man!!

Monday, Nov. 1st, 2010

Dear Friends of SKIFF,

This morning I took the two youngest sons of Captain Ramey Moore, the gentleman whose note of thanks I passed on to you last week. Captain Moore is serving with the U.S. Army in Mosul, Iraq.

Reece (age 7) and Noah (age 4) had a bit of fishing experience under their belts as we got going this morning, and recollected a few hauls of bluegill and catfish from out of the Red River with grandpa who hails from Paris, TX.

The boys’ mom, Stephanie, and I agreed on a meeting location where I picked the boys up and took them on over to Belton Lake. On the way we talked about dad coming home in December for R&R, about grandpa’s herd of cows that wear “earrings with numbers on them”, the one “cow that’s a bull”, about trick-or-treating, and about a fun, past visit to Great Wolf Lodge in Dallas.

As we got on the water, Priority #1 was to get a fish, any fish, in the livewell so that Noah could have something to amuse himself with in case things were a bit slow (this is a good tip for any of you taking kids 6 or younger fishing!!). We scored 3 keeper white bass on downriggers in the first 15 minutes of the trip (at Area 677 to 473), so, that issue was quickly put to bed.

The day began with about 40% cloud cover and a S. wind at 9. That wind steadily moved SW, then W, then NW as the very lead edge of a cold front due to bring cooler weather later this week passed through. The fishing was slow until the velocity of the wind jumped suddenly from 8-9 up to 14-15 as the winds shifted from W to NW at around 10am. At this point, over 2 hours into what we’d planned to be a 4 hour trip, we’d only boated 11 fish with a short, strong sunrise bite followed by a long lull during which time we jigged 3 fish (at Areas 682 and SW of 94) and managed 5 more just sporadically on the downriggers (around Area 302-487).

Almost as if someone flipped a switch, when the wind increased and changed direction, fish began to rise up off bottom and feed throughout the water column. We were fishing over Area 684/685 and witnessed a “mat” of fish blanketing the bottom at 28-32 feet, large schools of fish suspended from 16-20 feet down, and occasional bursts on the surface as fish pursued shad upward.

In the final hour and 30 minutes we boated 24 more fish by way of downrigging and flatline trolling. Reece was very helpful in that he paid out the right amount of line very consistently and was able to both raise and lower the downrigger balls as needed. Little Noah’s manual dexterity was a bit more limited, but, he did a good job of getting the right amount of line out for our trolled baits so I could set the downrigger clips and still steer and watch sonar.

We had a really “cool” thing happen at the peak of the feed around 11am — Reece had just landed a hybrid striper on the “red rod” (a Lamiglas ‘Jared Johnson’ Kokanee rod made just for downrigging). There was about 7 feet of line hanging from the tip of the rod to the bait (a Pet Spoon). As I worked with the boys to unhook the fish and snap a photo, I set the rod in rodholder on the starboard side of the boat that I normally rest livebait rods in. As we moved along (the boat was in gear because we still had the second downrigger deployed) and the Pet Spoon skipped along on the surface of the water just a rod’s length out from the boat, another hybrid raced to the surface and just exploded on the bait. You’ve gotta’ love the drags on those Ambassadeur 5500’s — that fish ripped 45 more feet of line off that reel in a split second. Well, one more split second passed and Noah had a death grip on the cork handle of the rod and proceeded to make short work of that fish!!

By 11:30 the winds had begun to subside, the sky began to clear, the air had a drier feel to it and the fishing began to drop off rapidly. We decided to call it a day right there with 34 fish boated for our efforts today.

The seasons are definitely changing now — there is next to no sunfish bite left in the shallows, leaving only downrigging and the occasional jigging for really jazzed fish open as options for the youngest of kids. As the winter comes on harder, I’ll focus on older kids (5th grade and higher) able to do the more technical tasks required for vertical jigging successfully, and who have a longer attention span and a bit more patience. Once mid-March arrives it will be “game on” for all-comers once again.

Thank you very much for your support, and especially for your notes and e-mails of encouragement!!

Sincerely,

Bob Maindelle